"THE FIRST STRICTLY BOTANICAL BOOK WITH INTAGLIO PRINTS FROM METAL PLATES" (Blunt & Stearn). Colonna, a member of the Italian nobility and a lawyer by training, suffered from epilepsy and was led to the study of botany after discovering in Dioscorides the sedative properties of Valerian, which reputedly cured him. In his Phytobasanos (Plant touchstone), Colonna set out to improve the descriptions of plants given by Dioscorides and other classical authorities. He is believed to have executed the etchings for the present work himself after drawings taken from the life (the original drawings are preserved in the Bibliotheca Nazionale, Naples). Colonna approached the Disocoridean descriptions with a critical eye, and was in advance of his time in showing details of plant parts decades before their taxonomic importance was recognised. Adams C-2394; Blunt & Stearn 1994 pp.99-100; Mortimer Italian 130; Hunt 165; Nissen BBI 386; Pritzel 1822.